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What does this mean for us? We might have ESD, but looks like it might be getting pulled for some work, because of map location loading issues for spawn points. We are also getting all the doors, including the Club 47 ones to put on the map in order to make it look ‘realistic.’ These will come in open and closed, so if you want to wall off Club 47, but it also means you can have closed turbolifts. You can also replicate the holotub in Quinn’s office with the ship markers

.It also means that you can put ship models on the ground now. There are a few missing, most notably from the Klingon, but there are a great number of Federation ships.

We also got many starbases, but at the moment they are ‘bugged’ because you can only place them on a ground map. This might seem to be a bad thing, but actually it would be kind of awesome if they remained as placeable objects because they add a whole new type of architecture for building with.

Today is kinda a big deal day in the Star Trek Online foundry universe. While most of us are reeling from the all too soon loss of Mr. Leonard Nimoy, it was announced this afternoon that we will be getting a great big update to how the sectors in Star Trek Online work. Now we need that the walls were coming down between worlds, but we hadnt really gotten a look at the shape of this. And now as of the blog released today, we have, and it is glorious. And here it is:

What does this mean for us? Two things, firstly we are getting a number of CANON PLANETS added and most especially added as doors. What it also means is that they are rearranging the galaxy to move things to a more canonical location. So smirk also posted this: asking that anyone who needs to rearrange the wording on their missions, to get with him so that this can be arranged for when this goes live

As seen in the tribble notes today, props from the new ESD have been added to the foundry. These will be coming soon to holodeck. Tacofangs has stated that this does not mean everything in the station though. Specifically structure.

His message,

“All of the props, means props, not all of the all of it. I don’t think I included any of the structural parts (roofs/floors/supports). My hope is to get the ESD map in one of these days, but it’s a bit of a bigger task, and I need design help for that.

Edit: Just confirmed that there is some other stuff* that got in and avoided patch notes. I’ve informed our patch master, and the extras should be noted in the Holodeck Patch notes next week.

Synopsis: It has been two days since the attack on the U.S.S. Simba. With Admiral Taka in a coma, your only hope of catching the raiders was a tracking device planted on the stolen Borg technology by Commander M’Kiara. Now the technology has surfaced on a world deep within Klingon Space. On this forgotten world you will discover the inner-workings of a plot to destroy the federation itself. Report to Deep Space K-7 in the Eta Eridani sector block to rendezvous with the U.S.S. Simba and stop a hidden evil from rising.

This is Part 3 of the series. Federation level 50+. There is music that goes with this mission. The mission dialogue will tell you when to use it.

A temporary solution to long preview loading screens (along with information for Frost).

Here is what (I think) I’ve discovered. Please confirm if this works.

The problem with long preview loading screens has to do with adding objects to a map via the menus on the right of the screen.

So, load into the foundry and do nothing… You can preview your map over and over again with fast loading screens. Or, adjust items that are already loaded onto the map, when you launched the editor = fast loading screens. Or, copy and paste something already on your map using Cntl + C, Cntl + V (or the edit… paste option), then you’ll have fast loading screens.

Disclaimer: This is true, IF you haven’t already set the Foundry into long loading screen mode by trying to add something new to the map. Basically, once you are stuck with 4-5 minute loads, they are there to stay, no matter if you are messing with objects already on the map. All of the above applies before you get the loading screens, not after. Once you get a long load, then you need to reboot the Foundry.

Generally, you can avoid the long loading screens with this work-around by loading the map with all the objects you need or need to copy and paste.

Ex: If you know you’re building an office, put in all the objects that you want in a corner of the map. So, put in a desk, chairs, a fish tank, basically everything you want to use.

Then, save the project, exit the foundry, reload the project and there you go. You should have no trouble at all with loading screens while building a map with the objects that you already put in. If you need a second version of a desk, copy and paste it from the one that is already on the map. Again, placing one onto the map via the menus will bring back the loading screens of DOOM, even if the object is already on your map. You have to copy and paste a new version of it from the existing version to avoid the loading screens.

Hopefully this is just a temporary work-around, and it helps Frost to understand what is happening. But, it is working for me, and I can build again. Even if I have to stop and restart the foundry, that is preferable to a 4 minute loading screen that will never go away until you reboot the foundry.

Have you ever wonder what STO maps would look like if they were oriented to the real life stars they are suppose to represent? Below you will find sector maps as they would appear if that were taken into account. Foundry authors can use these maps to reference real life stars in their missions, and I will add more sectors as they are complete…at least out to a 100 LY sphere around Sol.

These maps were created with the real life star positions and as such the presence of Vulcan and Andor within the Vulcan Sector were the primary orientation determinant.

1) Overview:
Given the current fleet operational commitments it is useful for new commanders to receive a quick overview of general fleet organization to the wing level, deployments, nomenclature, etc. It should be noted that this information is only as accurate as the last update of this instruction.

2) Glossary:

2a) Fleet – The top-level operational element, a Fleet is assigned a fixed geographical responsibility for security and administration. Currently there are approximately fifteen such Fleets. Historically, during the Dominion War period there were up to fifty fleets, this was due to “administrative creep” during the relatively long period of peace prior to that conflict. At the end of the Dominion War that system was transitioned to a more flexible organization that retained fewer “fixed” fleets that could be quickly augmented with the more mobile Strategic Task Forces.

The Fleet geographical areas are the operational reporting commands for ships that are on independent assignment in addition to any formally attached sub-units. Fleets are usually comprised of up to ten Task Forces that are identified by the fleet number and task force number combined (i.e. 1st Task Force of the 1st Fleet = Task Force 11; 2nd Task Force = Task Force 12, etc.) The “zero” Task Force is reserved for the “command” or “headquarters” Task Force, but in practice this command element often remains at Starbase and is only operational if the entire fleet is mobilized for an out of geographical area deployment. (It should be noted there is often a negative or sardonic connotation used in the fleet about ‘Task Force Zero’ in reference to Fleet HQ. continue reading…

As of now sharing maps is not available, however it is very easy to share the costumes you create in the tailor. I am making this post with the hopes of starting a costume sharing library here on Starbase UGC. The database can contain custom uniforms, characters alien races, greenskinned cat people, you name it. Just upload your jpeg files found in the game’s screenshot file and you are good to go.

Dear anyone at Cryptic who might have the power to do this for the Foundry community,

Many of us Foundry authors like to build custom interiors. One of the biggest challenges for us relates to the lack of floors and ceilings. While we have a few walls of different factions, we have very few floors and ceilings. Mostly, we use one of these pieces, called “100 x 100 Building Block Platforms.”

Some Romulan Foundry contacts had the same name as one another; resolved this.
Added space Dominion NPC groups.
Added space Cardassian NPC groups.
Replaced a missing Romulan statue.
Projects that were affected should now republish properly.
Foundry NPC Groups set to Timid creature will now fight back when they take damage.

I don’t yet know how frequently I’ll be able to add stuff. Hope everyone agrees it’s better to release stuff in little bits and pieces rather than hold it all up and release it at once.

She also gives us more information on whether or not a mission qualifies for the Investigate Officer Reports:

There was an issue where the Journal incorrectly said that some didn’t qualify when they did–that was resolved and is on Holodeck as of today.

Every other mission I’ve checked (since the fix went live) legitimately didn’t qualify, whether because it lacked enough plays or because the average play time was too short…

Dropping absolutely doesn’t count. And if you don’t finish the mission, it’s not a completion time, so that wouldn’t count either.

There may be some other issue here, but it’s neither of those. We are investigating these reports, but as I said, I’ve checked the behind-the-scenes number for playtime and it has come up short on all the examples…

Average length of mission is not the only factor used in determining whether a mission qualifies…

I have said this elsewhere, but number of plays/reviews is one of the factors. I hope this is unsurprising, as it’s at least slightly more difficult to exploit this way.

Also, BranFlakes confirms that the devs are investigating music-related issues with the Foundry.

Last, but not least, a new round of spotlights have been added to the UI. Congrats to these past spotlight winners.